


Wings of Freedom

by TheAlphaMage46



Series: Attack on Titan: Riegan's Legacy [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:34:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAlphaMage46/pseuds/TheAlphaMage46
Summary: That day, humanity remembered.Remembered what it was like to be ruled by them.You know the story, but do you know HIS story? This story follows the story of Attack on Titan through the eyes of a new character.Dirk von Riegan lived a simple life within the Shiganshina district. With a mother in the Garrison and a father working as a simple merchant, Dirk figured street fights and chores were all life had for him. Until he first saw that colossal face staring him down from above the wall, that is.Orphaned and impoverished, the flames of vengeance would burn in the young man for the rest of his life.Bound in chains we'll die, unless we learn to fly.I do not own Attack on Titan or its characters! I only own my OC.All credit for the art used for face claims goes to the original artists.
Relationships: Reiner Braun/Original Female Character(s), Sasha Blouse/Connie Springer/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Attack on Titan: Riegan's Legacy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140953
Kudos: 1





	1. Shiganshina's Self-proclaimed King of Boxing

A jolt of pain shot through a young boy's jaw. He stumbled back, the crowd of cheering youths blurring in and out of his view as he held the bottom of his aching face. Once his vision cleared, the young blonde straightened his posture, bringing his fists back up as he stared the other boy down.

The dark haired boy threw a left hook, to which the blonde ducked under. The blonde briefly made eye contact with his opponent, who appeared to be a couple years older than him, before his fist, tightly wound in cloth, collided with the point just beneath the dark haired boy's ribs, pushing the wind from his lungs.

The dark haired boy collapsed, and as the crowd of children counted to five, it was determined that twelve-year-old Dirk von Riegan was the victor. As he exited the ring, Dirk untied his hair, his blonde locks falling around his face for a brief moment, before he retied it, pulling it all back into a ponytail again.

In the distance, a girl around the same age as Dirk, if not a few months younger, stood watching with a scowl on her pale face. Her brown hair was braided, resting on her shoulder, and she wore a blue _kurti_ and white pants. She couldn't believe he had gotten into a bout of fisticuffs _again_! She groaned loudly and called out to him, stomping toward him and grabbing him by the back of his shirt.

"You stupid jerk! I can't believe you did this _again!_ Come on back before your cuts get infected! Aish... why do I always have to deal with this?!" she exclaimed.

Dirk let out a laugh as the smaller girl dragged him along. He wiped some blood from his lip, before prying the girl's hand from his shirt.

"Alright! Alright! I'm already following you, Noor... you don't have to stretch this shirt out any more than you already have. And besides, I won, didn't I? My best friend should be congratulating me!" he replied with a crooked grin.

Aynoor Hassan huffed, taking him toward a bench where she could tend to his injuries.

"Why would I congratulate you on being violent?!" she asked, forcing him to take a seat as she grabbed the small collection of first aid supplies she kept in her satchel. "Papa always seems to encourage it, too. Whenever he sees you, he's always laughing and praising you for 'putting those kids in their places'..." she muttered as she soaked a washcloth with some alcohol. She began to dab at his split knuckles, holding his hand tightly so he didn't flinch from her.

"Exactly!" Dirk countered, a smirk pulling at his lip. "I'm putting them in their place! Therefore, what I'm doing is an act of justice!" he joked, wincing slightly as the wet cloth made contact with his hand. "Jeez..." he muttered, "really, Noor, if I was concerned about my injuries, I would just go see docter Jaeger," he grumbled, looking at his other hand.

"Then your hand will get infected and it'll be amputated!" Noor exclaimed, glaring at him and puffing her cheeks in irritation. "You need to be more careful when you beat people up! At least bind your hands or something! I'm not encouraging you to fight, but how are you going to do it with stumps for hands?!" she asked as she continued cleaning his knuckles.

Dirk blinked a couple times. He turned his free hand over, gazing at his split knuckles. _Odd..._ he thought, _I did bind my hands though..._

"I bet I could still beat those kids even with stumps," Dirk boasted, laughing as he grinned cockily.

"Alright... here," she muttered as she bandaged his hands. She moved on to his split lip, beginning to clean the little cut from where he had been punched hardest. "Hold still, would you?" she said with a groan, "I'm not gonna kill you with this!" She dabbed the cloth in alcohol again and squinted her eyes, making sure the blood had been cleaned off. "Anyway, Falaq said that you should come over. She made some of her lamb stew again and she knows how much you love eating it. Papa wants to see you as well. It's been awhile."

Dirk pulled away from her a touch, though it wasn't due to the cloth stinging. "It doesn't hurt..." he grumbled, "you're just really close... and you smell," he teased. It wasn't long until he broke out into laughter, earning him an elbow to the gut from Noor. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'd love to come over!" he exclaimed, his grin somehow widening even further. "I'd throw myself over the wall and into the maw of a titan if it meant more of that stew!"

"You can get plenty of stew without throwing yourself over the wall, so don't even think about it!" the young girl exclaimed. She stood up and put her things away, smiling, if only a little, and nodding her head toward the residential area. "Let's get going before Falaq starts to worry. As much as I lover her, she's a bit overbearing at times. I'm sure once she sees you, though, she'll prepare another fifty million bowls of stew!" she stated with a small laugh.

Dirk stood up not too long after her, huffing quietly as he followed his friend. "Mom already tells me how much she disapproves of anything I say about the walls or titans or the military, even if I'm just joking. Both my parents think I should join Dad as a merchant. 'Selling necessitites to the people alongside yours and Noor's fathers is far safer than any military shenanigans you're thinking of , young man!'" he said mockingly.

Noor adjusted her satchel as she walked beside him. She knew just how little Heidi, Dirk's mother, approved of him talking about joining the military. It was the same with Falaq, Noor's and her father's handmaid. Noor never knew her mom, but her dad often told her of how much she loved her. When she was just a toddler, her father had hired Falaq to become a handmaid. Falaq was equal parts older sister and mother figure to Noor. She had aspirations to join the military, but Falaq was against it. She wanted her to learn embroidery and marry a good man when she was old enough, and the life of a soldier was the exact opposite of that.

"I know," she replied quietly, "Falaq wants me to become a seamstress and get married, but I want to protect Papa! If I don't who will? He doesn't have any other children," she said, gazing off as she spoke.

"Protect him from what though?" Dirk asked with a small laugh. "In her fifteen years in the Garrison, my mother's only killed three titans, and that was because they were too close to the gates for comfort. These walls are over three times as tall as any titan we've ever seen, so I think we're pretty well protected already," he stated.

"I don't know..." Noor mumbled with a frown. "I pray that no titan ever comes through these walls... but you never know what could happen. If Papa or Falaq ever got hurt and I wasn't there to protect him, I'd never forgive myself."

Just outside the Hassan household was an older woman in a long white _kameez,_ a kind of long tunic, and black pants, with an apron around her. The woman was busy throwing a bucket of soapy water onto the cobblestone as the children approached. The pale woman looked up at the approaching children, her braided hair falling behind her as her dark brown eyes settled on them.

"Dirk! Noor! Come one in! Dinner is almost ready!" she exclaimed, smiling brightly at the youths.

"I've been over for dinner so many times... I think my parents stopped making meals for me at home!" Dirk joked as he entered the house. He breathed in the aroma of the cooking stew and grinned. He took a seat as he gazed at the pleasant aesthetic of the simple wooden house, the table seeming to glow a warm gold as the setting sun poured through the window.

Falaq chuckled and closed the door behind her, walking toward the hearth to pour some stew into several bowls. "Did you get into a fight again, Dirk? I see your lip is split." she inquired.

"What else?" Noor asked with a grumble as she balanced her chin on her hand. "He never stops fighting. Oh, and where's Papa? I thought he would be home for dinner."

"He'll be here any minute," the older woman answered, holding two bowls and placing them before the children. "He was selling a few new spices, and the locals are absolutely crazy about them!"

"Why wouldn't they be?" Dirk asked with a smirk, "He hasn't sold his secret of how he grows the herbs to anyone, and beyond that, all we have in Shiganshina is salt... he could have made a fortune inside of wall Rose if he wanted, maybe even Sina!" he exclaimed. He thanked Falaq for the stew, grinning as the aroma wafted closer to his nose.

"He could have made a fortune very easily, but with the thought of the titans always standing just outside our walls, Zahid finds it best to simply hold on to essentials," Falaq replied as she sat down with her own bowl.

"I wonder if things will ever go back to normal," Noor said with a frown, looking at her stew as she began eating.

"As long as there are titans, this is the normal," Dirk replied with a quiet sigh.

"Still... I would love for Papa to be able to sell his spices all over the world. He deserves that much," Noor mumbled.

"Come on, Noor," Dirk commented with a small groan, "the people living within the walls are all that's left of the world. Humanity is lucky enough to still exist. Next you'll say you believe that Arlert kid and you think there's a great body of salt water outside the walls!" he exclaimed with a laugh as he began eating.

Just then, the door opened and an older man with unruly brown hair and a beard appeared. He smiled sweetly when he saw the three of them inside. Placing his belongings to the side, he greeted them all.

"Good evening," Zahid said simply, his deep voice carrying effortlessly across the room.

"Papa, you're home!" Noor exclaimed as she turned around. She practically jumped out of her chair and hugged her father, who returned the hug with just as much enthusiasm.

"Welcome home, sir," Falaq said, standing and pouring him a bowl of stew as well. "I take it your day today has gone well? Dirk has come to join us for dinner again. He wanted to see you,"

"I won another one!" Dirk exclaimed with a grin. "The kid was talking shit about your business, so I had to teach him a lesson about respect," he explained with a small laugh.

"That's my King of Boxing!" Zahid exclaimed with a guffaw. He let go of his daughter, grabbing the young blonde boy and pulling him into a headlock. He gave the boy a playful noogie, messing up his hair. "Good on you for protecting my business!" he said, letting out another deep laugh.

"Papa! Don't encourage him!" Noor shouted, pouting as she looked to her father.

"Alright, you two. Dinner is getting cold. Why don't you sit down and eat before that happens?" Falaq said firmly. She pulled out a chair for Zahid, though she couldn't help but smile at the brief banter.

Dirk couldn't help but laugh as he was released from the headlock. He tried, and failed, to fix his hair, before sitting down with the rest of them. The meal was as great as ever, and afterward he thanked them before leaving, quickly heading home. The sun had just dipped beneath Wall Maria when Dirk arrived at his own home. He quickly explained to his parents where he had been, skipping over the part where he fought another kid, before climbing the stairs and entering his bedroom. He let out a happy sigh as he changed into his nightclothes, flopping onto his bed and staring at the ceiling.

All was good.

All was peaceful.

But most importantly, and most unexpectedly for young Dirk

**_All was about to go straight to hell._ **


	2. The Fall of Shiganshina

Dirk was pulled from his slumber by the sounds of movement from downstairs, as well as the sunlight pouring though his window. He scrunched his eyes tighter first, before slowly opening him. With a groan, he sat up, his unruly blonde locks of hair falling across his face. He threw the covers off of his body, getting up and rubbing his eyes. He quickly through on his regular outfit of a white cotton shirt and plain brown trousers. He wrestled with his hair, pulling it back into a usual ponytail before making his way down the stairs. As he rubbed his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of his mother preparing for work as his father sat at the table. His father noticed him first, however, giving the young blonde a wide grin.

"Dirk, my boy! Make sure to pick up a bag of flour and a few pounds of beef, okay?" his father asked, to which he was met with a sleepy "yessir."

Heidi, Dirk's mother, had finished tightening the various belts and straps to her uniform when her son finally marched down the stairs. Orphaned by illness at the age of 10, Heidi spent 2 years in an orphanage before making her decision to join the military. Seeing the opportunity for a stable income and a life away from the orphanage, Heidi left her small village within Wall Maria behind in order to join the 98th Cadet Corps. She had proven to be rather average in training, though her vast knowledge and ability to quickly learn landed her the 10th spot in the top 10. Wanting a simple life that wasn't too dissimilar to what she was used to, she opted to join the Garrison, where she had spent the last 15 years living in Shiganshina with a merchant she met when she was 17.

Eric von Riegan, however, never experienced such hardships. His father was a fisherman and a merchant, often bringing his catch straight to the markets. He would make a show of killing, gutting, and cutting the fish into the portions he would sell right there on the streets, making a name for himself for the fish's incredible freshness. Eric grew up learning the art of selling goods to the people alongside the Hassan family, who had been close with the von Riegans for generations. However, Eric's fishing skills were poor, and his preparing of the meat was absolutely abysmal, and so when the boy grew older, he made a name for himself as a seller of necessities. Tools, flour, meats (that had already been cut of course), anything you could ask for, chances were Eric could find it and sell it to you for a reasonable price. When he was around twenty years old, he fell head over heels for a Garrison soldier. To his surprise, he found the young soldier harbored similar feelings, and in thirteen short years, he found himself with an incredible family, and happier than he could ever be.

As Dirk trudged down the stairs, his mother gave him one of her trademark smiles that could light up their entire house.

"There's my little fighter," she said with a small giggle, lightly ruffling his hair as she made her way to him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Like a rock..." Dirk half-mumbled. He finally blinked the last remnants of sleep from his eyes before smiling to his parents. He made his way to the table, grabbing a couple slices of bread and an apple as he sat. "So... how has work been? Any dire circumstances call for a valiant hero to slay another titan?" he asked with a laugh.

Heidi let out a small chuckle as she shook her head. "No. Nothing of the sort. I'm patrolling the wall again today though, so I'll let you know if anything interesting happens," she replied as she took her seat across from her son and next to her husband. She took her own slice of bread, buttering it once Dirk passed her the knife. "We can never be too careful," she admitted with a smile that carried a trace of sadness. "While the titans haven't gotten in yet, the men left in charge of the gates could get drunk if you left them in a room with nothing but water. It never hurts to stay vigilant in case they decide to just... let one in!" Her last words carried the light air of a usual joke she would make. While it was true that the Wall Repair crew and Gate Management had habits of drinking on the job, Heidi knew she could trust them to still do their part in keeping the walls safe.

Eric let out a low chuckle, his hand running across his chin, which was beginning to grow a layer of stubble. "If you ask me, the only ones worth worrying about are those 'abnormals' you've mentioned," he said to his wife.

"Abnormals?" Dirk asked, turning his head and looking between his parents.

"You see," Heidi said, facing her son, "most titans behave in a way that we have deemed 'logical' for them. They are drawn to large groups of humans, and they often attack the closest human to them. Some titans, however, disobey this sense of logic. They might ignore the closest people for a larger group, for example. We call these titans 'abnormals'" she explained.

Dirks eyes lit up as his mother explained the concept to him. It wasn't often that she talked about the titans to him, and he found himself carrying a morbid curiosity about them because of it. He would pester his mother with questions, which she would often refuse to answer, opting to redirect the conversation away from the horrific monsters.

"Woah... cool!" the young boy exclaimed as he finished his food.

"No! Not cool!" his mother responded. "The titans are horrifying, and when one reacts in illogical ways, they become impossible to predict! The few friends I made as a cadet all wanted to be heroes in the Survey Corps, and they've all been killed!" she exclaimed. She knew her son didn't mean anything bad in his words, but she couldn't help herself. She desperately wanted to quell his curiosity about the titans, hoping that his wish to join the military would go with it. She knew her son got into fights, and she knew he often had good intentions when he did. She knew he wanted to protect those around him, but she couldn't bare to lose her only son to one of those _things._

"Sorry..." Dirk mumbled, looking down at his lap. "I'm... gonna go grab the stuff you needed now," he said to his father. He stood up and turned, exiting the house with a sigh.

As he rounded the first corner, he faintly heard the door to his house opening again. He knew his mother was the one to exit, as she had to get to work. Today was one of the days his father didn't sell goods, and he often spent his days off relaxing.

Along the route to the market, Dirk passed the inner gate, where he heard the butt end of a conversation between who appeared to be Doctor Jaeger's son and a tall blonde Garrison soldier.

"Can you fight like that if you have to?" the boy, who looked a couple years younger than Dirk asked.

"If we have to?" the soldier repeated. There was an intoxicated slur to his speech, Dirk noted. The man was drunk, even if it was still early in the day. "When would we..." the soldier spoke, only to be interrupted.

"When else?!" the Jaeger boy exclaimed. "If they breached the walls and entered the city!" he shouted.

That was the last part of the conversation that Dirk heard, as he kept walking. He made his way to the market, a place he had been countless times between working with his father or running errands. He found the butcher first, who greeted him with a wide mouthed grin.

"Well now, if it isn't the young von Riegan! You here fer an errand fer yer Pa?" the butcher asked, leaning forward.

"Yup!" Dirk replied with a smile of his own. He stepped forward, humming quietly. "He said a few so... I'll take about 3 pounds of beef, please. He also didn't mention any specific cuts, so surprise me!"

"Hmm... I'll git right to it!" the burly man exclaimed. He turned around and went to work, carving the meat and wrapping it in parchment, before passing it to the boy. "I'll give you a lil' discount too, so long as you tell yer Pa that I'm runnin' low on parchment fer wrappin' my meats. That'll bring ye down to 9 dollars, kiddo!"

Dirk promised to relay the information to his father, and passed the currency to the butcher, taking the meats and holding them in his arms. 

Afterwards, he was able to quickly acquire flour, and with a small balancing act, he managed to carry both the meat and flour back to his house. His hands full, Dirk kicked on the door to let his father know he was home. As he put the supplies away, he heard the distinct sound of the town bell, it's slow ringing echoing across all of Shiganshina.

"The Scouts are back!" Dirk exclaimed as he turned to the window. He left everything where it was, running out the door and tearing across the town towards the outer gates. He waded into the crowd just as the gates were finished opening.

"Took you long enough! I thought you were still sleeping!" a voice called out from behind Dirk. Standing on a box a few feet back was Noor, who huffed when he finally turned around.

"Oh shush! I had to grab flour and beef for my father," Dirk answered simply. He got onto a smaller box, bringing him to about Noor's height as they both looked over the crowd.

Grim faces on horseback slowly trudged into the town. Beaten, bloodied, and looking like they had all seen better days, the first soldier in the line was a blonde with thick eyebrows furrowed into a frown. He was followed by two soldiers who kept their hoods over their ashamed faces. The blonde soldier's eyes widened as he turned to face someone in the crowd on the other side of the street from Dirk, before he turned away, his features overcome with grief. Following the soldier was a sight unlike anything Dirk had ever seen. Soldiers were limping along side their comrades, bandages covering various parts of the body from soldier to soldier. One soldier, who carried a look as if he had seen death itself in his eyes, even had bloodied bandages wrapped tightly around his mouth and jaw.

"It's... it's horrible," Noor muttered as she stared, wide-eyed, at the soldiers.

"These are all that made it back?" a voice in the crowd muttered.

"Everyone else must've been eaten." someone replied.

"That's what happens when you go outside the walls." another voice added.

"Moses! Moses!" an elderly voice suddenly called out. The marching stopped as an elderly lady broke through the crowd and approached the commander.

"Um, my son, Moses... I don't see him. Where is he?" she asked, looking through the sea of dead faces, before turning her attention back to the commander.

"This is Moses' mother," the commander stated. He turned to a black haired male to his left, his next words carrying an underlying tone of dread behind them. "Bring it." he muttered

A lump wrapped in bloodied cloth was passed to the commander. The brown haired man then handed the cloth to the elderly woman, who went wide-eyed. She slowly looked down at the cloth, a look of despair washing over her. She looked between the cloth and the commander, before beginning to unwrap the cloth.

A bloodied arm.

Like a morbid gift from the titans themselves, the woman held the torn up arm of who could only be presumed to be her son. She broke into sobs as the commander spoke.

"That is all we managed to retrieve." He said, his sober composure never wavering. The old woman dropped to her knees, holding the wrapped arm close to her as she sobbed. After a brief moment, the commander soon knelt as well.

"But my son..." the woman said slowly. "He helped, right?" she then asked. The commander's eyes widened from the sudden question, but the woman kept speaking. "Even if he didn't do anything directly... My son's death helped humanity fight back, didn't it?!" she shouted, looking the commander in the face as tears ran from her eyes.

"Of course!" the commander replied quickly, finally recovering from the shock of her words. His face slowly darkened as he drew back, his lips pulled into a thin line.

"No." he muttered, his eyes seeming to stare past the mother and at the dirt behind her. "Our recon this time didn't..." he paused as he took a deep breath. "No, we never..." 

The commander's eyes clenched shut as he finally seemed to find the right words. "We never learn a thing!" he shouted. The grieving mother was taken aback as he confessed. "It's my fault..." he continued, "My own incompetence killed our men! And we still don't even know what they _are!"_ he shouted. Dirk noticed that tears were streaming down the man's face as well now.

"Hey... let's go," Dirk muttered. He had been speechless throughout the entire altercation. As the line of soldiers made its way down the street, Dirk grabbed Noor by the wrist, pulling her along. She caught up to him, pulling her wrist free, and together they walked back to the marketplace, finding Noor's father's stand and joining him. Noor explained what had happened to her father, and he nodded slowly, closing his eyes.

"May he rest in peace," Zahid muttered, before sighing. "Their work is courageous, but to think the commander would admit to so little results,"

The three of them spent the rest of the day in the small kiosk, pulling passersby in to sell them the exotic spices. With each purchase, Zahid included a small piece of paper with a recipe that Falaq had written. The recipe was something tailored to the specific spice that was purchased, and had instructions at the end with other ways that the spice could be used.

As the sun set, Dirk and Noor helped Zahid pack up the shop, before starting to head home. They had barely finished putting everything away when the ground shook with a violent force. Noor was thrown off her feet, and Dirk noticed a bolt of what seemed to be lightning falling behind the wall, before he too stumbled to the ground.

When Dirk looked back up at the wall, every muscle in his body tensed. He dropped the bag of spices in his hands and simply stared in disbelief.

A monstrous hand, easily the size of a house, and completely void of skin, was holding the wall. Then came another hand, and slowly, a head. What little skin was present clung tightly to the gargantuan face as it stared, emotionless, over the city.

"Is that... A titan?!" Noor exclaimed, also gazing at the looming figure. Zahid whipped around last, and the trio stared at the hulking abomination. A crowd had gathered at the gate as an eerie silence washed over the entire crowd.

Then the gate exploded.

A violent rush of wind tore across the crowd. Dirk and Noor were both thrown off their feet a second time, though Zahid had just managed to catch Noor. Clutching his head, Dirk was thrown back and slammed into the cobblestone. Zahid placed his daughter back down, before running over and pulling Dirk to his feet. 

"We need to run! NOW!" He shouted. Dirk caught a glimpse of the horrific scene before obeying the the command.

Boulders were strewn about, many covered in the blood of the civilians crushed underneath. A woman, who was thrown back by the following wind, laid next to her child, a blank stare on her face. The infant had been torn from her grasp from the winds, and blood splashed across the woman's face and the ground beneath. Her head had been smashed on impact. Dirk held back a retch as he realized that both mother and child were dead, most likely killed instantly.

Screams filled the air as those who survived the boulders and violent winds took notice of the gaping hole in the wall, and the towering monstrosities that followed. Titans, in all of there grotesque horror, were entering the city.

The first stop was Noor's house, as it was the closest. While the house still stood, about half of the roof had been demolished by a passing boulder. 

"FALAQ? FALAQ!" Zahid shouted as he threw the door open. The woman was already in the living room, scrambling to try to grab something, anything, to pack. "Leave everything! We need to evacuate!" the man called out. Falaq nodded, dropping what she was holding and quickly exiting the household.

"DIRK!" a voice called out from above. The young boy turned quickly, relief flooding his body as his mother descended from above them. Two blades in her hands, a pair of hooks retracted from the walls of nearby buildings and back into the device around her waist as she pulled her son close. "Thank goodness your okay!"

"Mom! Mom... the titans..." Dirk muttered, embracing his mother.

"I know. I know. Everything will be okay. I'll make sure you all evacuate safely," his mother replied, releasing him from her grasp.

As the group ran towards Dirk's house next, the boy took time to survey the destruction. Some houses were left standing, others missing a roof or some walls, while others still were completely obliterated, either crushed underneath a boulder or reduced to rubble in some other way. They found Dirk's house completely destroyed, with his father staring at the rubble just outside. There was another exchange of shouting each others names while the family embraced.

"I felt the rumbling from here... I went outside to look, and when I saw that, that thing! I knew something bad was coming. Titans have entered the city, yeah?" Eric asked, to which the rest of the group confirmed.

Once the six of them were all together, they made there way through the city. Dirk's lungs burned as he ran, but the adrenaline kept him going. Occasionally, he could see one of the giants out of the corner of his eye, just over the rooftops. Horribly deformed, he noticed that many of the titans had oddly disproportionate bodies. Heads that were far too big or too small, arms that were far too thin in comparison. The titans were as unique as people, if people were between 3 and 15 meters tall, ate humans, and left a trail of destruction behind them.

As they passed a house, there was a brief moment where time felt as if it stood still. Dirk turned his head, and found himself staring down a titan, its dark, bulbous eyes staring into his soul. His body was seized with shear terror, and every muscle locked up. The titan made a sound between a groan and a grunt, and it's hot breath reeked of death. The monster suddenly lunged forward, but Dirk found himself lifted off his feet as a body slammed into him. He stumbled to the ground, a horrified shriek filling the air from the other side of the titan.

"PAPA!" The unmistakable voice of Noor ripped through the air as Dirk grasped the situation. Just before the titan could devour him, Zahid had thrown himself at the boy, pushing him out of the way, but leaving himself vulnerable. The titan had bit down on him, holding the man in its mouth, it's jaws clamped just above his knees, crushing his legs, but not severing them. The man grit his teeth as his fists slammed into the gargantuan teeth that held him.

"Z... Zahid!" Dirk called out. He stumbled forward, wanting to believe that his was all some nightmare. He felt as if he wanted to retch, but nothing would come forward. There was a sudden shout of fury as Heidi von Riegan appeared above the titan. there was a hiss as the cables shot past Dirk, planting in the ground behind him. A jet of steam propelled his mother from behind as she launched herself forward. Steel blades cut through the nape of the titan, and its jaws slackened as a spray of steaming hot blood filled the air. The thick crimson fluid covered Dirk, although it quickly dissipated, seeming to evaporate before his eyes.

Drawn in by the commotion, three more titans rounded the corner, pinning Dirk and his mother between the dissipating corpse of the titan and the three newcomers. Terrified, Dirk backed up, pressing his body against the evaporating corpse as his mother turned around. She ran to Dirk, crouching down and holding his shoulders.

"Listen to me!" she said quickly. "You and your father need to take Zahid and run. If you can get him medical aid after evacuating, his wounds won't be fatal," she explained. She pulled something from around her neck, pressing it into his hand. "If I don't make it out of this, you give this to your father. Now run!" she commanded.

Dirk watched his mother turn around, facing the approaching titans once more. She rocketed forward, reaching the smallest titan and jamming her blades into its eyes. It let out a pained groan as she jumped back, the spray of blood covering the ground as the blinded titan reached for it's eyes. Heidi turned, releasing a jet of steam to try to move around the second titan...

Only to be met with the outstretched palm of the largest of the three. It snapped shut around her, pinning her arms to her side.

"MOM!"

"HEIDI!"

Two voices sounded at once as father and son both witnessed the event. Dirk stumbled back as the corpse he was leaning on finished dissipating, and he fell into his fathers arms, who held him.

A voice filled with terror rang out. Legs, barely visible from beneath the hand of the titan, kicked back and forth as Heidi von Riegan struggled in its grasp. "Both of you! Run! Run while you-"

Dirk watched as his mother turned, shouting to them to flee. Her words were cut off by the snapping jaws of the titan. It's hand still grasping her legs, it pulled its head back. As flesh was torn and cloth was ripped, the titans head leaned back all the way, a visible motion in its throat as it swallowed Heidi's torso. It's hand slackened and her legs, which were followed by blood and a tail of entrails, were dropped to the two smaller titans, who each grabbed a leg and pulled in a grotesque tug of war.

Dirk opened his hand, looking down at the small object his mother had given him. Tied around a small leather band to form a necklace, was a ring with a small stone in the middle. His vision was pulled away from the object, however, as his father pulled him back to his feet. Dirk pocketed the ring and it's strap, figuring he could give it to his father when all was said and done, as he and his father rushed to Zahid's side. The man groaned quietly, holding his thighs as he sat in a slowly growing pool of his own blood. The young boy and his father slung the merchant's arms around their shoulders, hoisting him up as they carried him along. The task was rather awkward, as Eric was still quite a bit taller than his son, who was still growing.

A mix of survival instincts, adrenaline, and shock pushed the two of them forward as they caught up to Noor and Falaq. "We need... to keep moving!" Dirk's father shouted between breaths. The whole group seemed to recognize the weight of the situation, as no one protested. Everyone simply kept moving towards the inner gate.

Dirk lost track of time as they ran. They could have been running for hours, or just a couple of minutes. It was an arduous task, and there progress was limited by Dirk and Eric having to carry Zahid along. Neither of them complained though, for neither of them were going to leave their friend to die on the streets. The screams seemed like they would never end. Blood was splashed across every other street, and they had to be careful as not to slip on it. As they made their way through the town, a voice called out among the screams as a man walked, of all things, against the flow of fleeing people!

"For till then I was a soul in misery, alienate from God, and covetous of all earthly things," the man, who held what could only be presumed to be a bible in his hand, shouted as he walked. "Now, as thou seest, here punish'd for my doting! Such cleansing from the taint of avarice do spirits, converted, need."

No one paid attention to the man as he walked into the oncoming sea of titans. If anyone were focused on anything besides just trying to survive, they would have found him crazy; preaching about the titans like they were a "cleansing." How absurd!

The preaching man was soon grabbed by an approaching titan, who quickly devoured him, cutting him off mid sentence. The book he held was dropped, the pages soaking up the blood that it landed in.

When Dirk, Noor, and the rest reached the inner gate, they were met with a crowd, each person trying to push past those around them. The Garrison soldiers were desperately trying to bring order to the mob, though there was little success. The worst part was that, had someone within the crowd not stopped, this kind of clogging would not have happened. The group of kids and adults joined the fray, Falaq and Noor pleading with the crowd to let them through so that Zahid could get medical aid. While some people were kind enough to move to the side and let them make a little progress, many were more focused on their own survival.

**_Thump..._ **

**_Thump..._ **

**_Thump..._ **

The crowd turned in horror as they saw a crowd of five titans beginning to close in on them. The horror of staring down that many titans seemed to do the trick, as people began moving again at a much faster pace. The crowd thinned as more and more people made it through the gate, but Zahid collapsed from exhaustion, bringing Dirk and his father down with him. The two of them struggled to bring their friend back to his feet as the titans kept closing in. The Garrison began firing cannons, the ones that hit removing limbs or heads from the titans. The titans whose heads were removed would stop for a few minutes, steam billowing from their severed necks as the head slowly reconstructed before their very eyes. Desperate to avoid another blockage of people, a soldier made his way to them, holding underneath Zahid's arms as they all attempted lifted him together, pleading with him to keep moving.

The titans, unrelenting in their pursuit, kept marching forward despite the cannon fire. Realizing that they would close in faster than everyone could get out, a woman made a decision.

Looking back at the people she had grown to love over the past ten years, Falaq pulled Noor close, tears silently falling onto the young girls hair.

"Keep Dirk out of fights, okay?" she said, smiling sadly at the young girl.

"Falaq, what are you..." Noor began to ask. She never finished her sentence, as Falaq had already pushed her away...

And was running towards the titans. Noor called out to her, but she couldn't be stopped. In a last ditch effort to buy them all more time, the handmaid sacrificed herself, the first titan to reach her grabbing her by her head and lifting her off her feet. Unfortunately, the Garrison soldiers had preoccupied themselves with trying to keep the crowd moving, and none of them noticed the woman until she was already in the hands of the beasts.

"FALAQ!" Noor called out again. Tears ran down her face, her chest heaving with sobs as she watched the woman, the closest thing she could have known to a mother, run towards her own death. As the titan lifted Falaq, more titans closed in, grabbing at the woman, each one trying to devour the unfortunate handmaid. Limbs were torn free as the titans fought for her, and she bit her tongue, holding back a scream, before she was devoured, her death swift and painless as the jaws of a titan crushed her.

Dirk, Eric, and the Garrison soldier finally managed to lift Zahid back to his feet, and they kept moving, the soldier taking a hold of Noor's arm and pulling her along.

"You need to keep moving!" Dirk called back to her, "For your father! He's not dead yet, so keep running, dammit!"

His words seemed to reach her, if only a little, and persuade her to keep moving. They made it through the gates, and the soldier directed them towards the nearby boats, explaining that it was the safest bet in order to get them to safety. The soldier opted to follow them, in case Zahid collapsed again.

Suddenly, as if this day couldn't get any worse, the ground shook again. The force wasn't nearly as strong as when the first titan appeared, but it was still noticeable. After the initial shaking, a series of thumps arose. The ground began shaking more and more.

**Something was coming.**

Something that could shake the earth as it charged the inner gate.

The second wall exploded with a force similar to that of the devastating kick that opened the outer wall. All five of them, including the kind soldier, were thrown off their feet once more. Dirk got up quickly, rushing to Noor's side to help her up. A rock the size of a large bird whizzed passed, cutting Dirk's cheek and causing him to turn. A new wave of rubble was falling from the sky, and before Dirk's father could get back on his feet, a large piece of rubble the size of a boulder buried him into the ground, a bloody, crushed hand protruding from where the rock met the earth.

The screams and shouts slowly became more and more muffled as Dirk stumbled towards the boulder. Wide eyed, he slowly put his hand against it, unaware of the tears that were collecting along his eyes. He wanted to drop to his knees, but the soldier had picked him up, pulling him back. He said something about needing to get Noor's father onto the boat before it was filled, but Dirk barely heard him. His gaze shifted to the wall, and the new titan that had breached it. Covered in what seemed to be a thick armor, the titan's jaw opened slowly, a jet of steam billowing from its mouth as if it were breathing fire.

Zahid was safely loaded onto the boat where he rested, groaning from the pain in his legs. Dirk was vaguely aware of what was happening around him at the time.

To his left, the Jaeger boy was shouting out to the world, making a promise to eliminate the titans. To his right, Noor seemed to be screaming along with him. Dirk thought he heard something about "avenging Falaq" in her words. He wasn't paying any attention though. As he stared at the floorboards of the boat, everything he saw kept looping through his mind.

_His mother, torn in two by a titan, her remains dropped to the other titans like food scraps you would give to a dog._

_His father, crushed by a rock._

_His mother,_

_His father,_

_That titan, billowing steam from its mouth after breaching the inner wall._

_Mother,_

_Father,_

And as the young boy stared blankly at the floor, reliving his parents' deaths in some inescapable loop, a new thought entered his mind, regardless of whether or not it was true.

_I'm..._

_I'm Alone._


	3. Baby Steps

That year, ten thousand people perished at the hands of the titans. The central government retreated behind Wall Rose, and refugees from all over the outer territory were forced to draw behind the second wall as well. Food was scarce, and it was soon brought to the military's attention that there were simply too many mouths to feed with their supplies, despite the refugees being put to work. Everyone who could work tilled the wastelands in order to plant more crops and bring in more food, but no amount of tilling and planting could seem to feed the endless sea of people just trying to survive.

Zahid had found medical aid within 24 hours of being injured, but the doctors concluded that his legs couldn't be saved. Having been crippled in such a way, he was deemed unfit to work, and so the labor fell upon Noor and Dirk, who worked harder than anyone else to earn food for not just them, but Zahid as well. Currently 13 years old, Dirk found himself growing at a considerable rate. But while his height continued to increase, he found his temper beginning to shorten. Call it what you want: hormones, lack of food, having to see his parents die every night while he slept, or perhaps it was a blend of all three. Regardless, as time moved forward, the young boy who fought fair had begun to fade. And with that being said, our story continues.

* * *

The young blonde trudged down the street, his hand clamped around the half loaf of bread in his coat pocket that he had been given for his "meal."

"Maybe work harder and you'll get a bigger portion," he spat, mocking the words that the stuck up prick who gave him his meal had spoken. Dirk's view towards the military had become complicated to say the least. He still respected the branches as a whole, but he had also begun to see just how many lazy bastards enlisted just for extra food rations and an "easy life." The way he saw it, the ones who slacked off tarnished the reputation of the military, and should have been fired.

"All I'm saying is, if the Garrison regiment in Shiganshina were REALLY worth anything, then the titans wouldn't have successfully breached the wall, and we wouldn't be in this shit hole in the first place!"

It was like the voice had carried with the sole purpose of reaching Dirk's ears. He stopped in his tracks, his head turning towards the source of the voice: a thin boy, maybe a year younger than Dirk himself, with greasy brown hair.

"The FUCK did you say, you little shit?!"

There wasn't much in the way of introductions for the two youths. Once the blonde had identified who was, in his perspective, trash talking the memory of his mother, he lost it. There was no attempt to calm himself down or ignore the remarks, he simply attacked. He brought himself down on the younger boy, pinning him down with his knees as knuckles met face. Nose, mouth, cheek, any contact was good enough for him. As his vision went red, he felt the hands of who he could only assume were the boy's friends trying to pull him off of his target, but kept himself well anchored. It wasn't until a knee, coming in hard and fast, was slammed into his head that he was brought off the boy. He stared at the ground, temporarily stunned, before bringing his eyes up to see the soldier who had struck him. The same man who had given him his food now stood, holding that same half loaf in his hand.

"................ causing a ruckus, I'll be confiscating your ration,"

Dirk's ear was still slightly ringing when the soldier spoke, so he only caught the last half of his sentence. He eyed the bread, a shocked expression passing over his face as his hand instinctively shot into his pocket, only to find nothing. The bread must have fallen out of his pocket when he hit the ground.

"Give that back, asshole!" the young teen shouted, getting to his feet. "This little bastard was shit talking you, so if anything, you should be thanking me!" He continued to shout, but by that point, the Garrison soldier had stopped listening, and was already walking away. The small group of children had cleared out too, the kid's friends helping him walk away, his face bloodier than Dirk's knuckles. He let out a slow breath, pushing his hair out of his eyes and turning around, only to find Noor in his face.

"The hell was that?!" she cried out, her eyes furious as she glared at him.

"The hell was what?" he countered, tilting his head as he looked down at her.

"That! All of that! You just pinned a kid down and beat him senseless!"

"He deserved it,"

"Did he though? Because I get back from getting rations for Papa and me only to find my best friend beating a helpless kid!" Noor cried out, glaring daggers. Her expression eventually softened as she looked at her hands. "What happened to the Dirk I knew? The one who would only fight fair?"

"Dunno... maybe he died with my parents," Dirk grumbled in response. Noor let out a groan of exasperation, before storming off.

"I'm going to bring Papa his food. And don't you dare come back unless you've fixed your attitude!" she called behind her.

With a huff, Dirk kicked a small stone, stomping his way towards a nearby building and sitting down. He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose and gritting his teeth.

_ She doesn't get it. She doesn't... FUCKING... get it. Does she have to watch her parents die every damn night? NO! At least her dad is still alive! _

As he sat, fuming, his body began shaking ever so slightly. He would never see his parents again. Noor got to see her father every day. She had put up with his shortening temper for months now. At some point, as he sat there, he realized something.

He was jealous.

He envied Noor, in an almost morbid kind of way. Everyone was in a shitty situation, and yet he was envious of someone, and why? Because her situation was somehow less shit than his? There families were practically one, so if anything, she lost just as much as he did that day.

He really was in the wrong...

"Um,"

Dirk looked up at the source of the voice. It took him a moment, but he realized that a tear had been working its way down his cheek, trailing along the scar that ran across his face from where flying rubble had cut him. As he looked up, he was looking at another blonde boy, some 2 years younger than him.

"What do you want," Dirk grumbled, standing slowly.

"Did you get anything to eat today? Everyone else has their bread, but you don't have anything," The younger male muttered. His sky blue eyes met Dirk's emerald green ones, and the older boy huffed, looking down at his feet.

"...no. Guess I pissed off the Garrison. Didn't get shit," Dirk replied, chuckling with a small grin.

There was a moment of silence, before the small sound of bread tearing. Dirk looked up, his eyes widening as he found himself staring at a half loaf of bread.

"You can have half of mine then!"

"T...Thanks" Dirk said slowly. He reached out, taking the torn bread. He brought the food to his mouth, taking a small bite. It was just bread, plain and simple, but when you're a refugee who hasn't eaten since the previous day, any food is absolute heaven. As he ate, his stomach growled, and he realized just how hungry he was. He ate the bread quickly, as if it could be taken from him if someone saw him eat.

"Kid... what's your name?" He asked when he finished eating. He gazed at the other blonde, his hair straight and even, falling to each side of his face, a bit of a contrast to Dirk's own hair, which was unruly, despite being cut shorter than how he had it the previous year.

"Hm? Ah! My name is Armin," the boy replied, extending a hand, "Armin Arlert,"

"Dirk von Riegan," Dirk replied, clasping the boy's hand and smiling. "You're a good kid, Armin. I appreciate the food, but don't let that kindness get the better of you,"

Armin nodded, smiling to the older male. "Maybe if you come around here again tomorrow, I can introduce you to my friends!" he exclaimed, a small glint in his eye.

"Maybe," Dirk replied with a small chuckle. He let go of Armin's hand, his own hands returning to his coat pockets. "I... need to head back. I've got people expecting me. I'll bring my friend tomorrow to... probably," he said with a shrug.

He and Armin bid each other farewell, before Dirk turned around. He made his way to the small warehouse that he, Noor, Zahid, and a handful of other refugees had made their home. After a short walk, he reached the doors to the warehouse, letting out a sigh as he pushed them open. He made his way to the cot that he slept on, avoiding eye contact with Noor and Zahid until he sat down.

"I'm... sorry," he muttered, looking down at his hands. "It's... been rough for all of us. After we lost our homes, this past year has just... taken a toll on me," he admitted. Dirk brought his gaze up to Noor, giving her a weak smile. A hand was suddenly brought down upon him, and he jumped, his gaze shifting to Zahid, who gave him a warm grin, despite the grim look on his face.

"My boy..." he spoke slowly, his dark eyes piercing his very soul. "These times have been troublesome for all of us. We all lost a great deal on that day, but that doesn't make your pain any less valid. To lose both parents in a span of mere hours, and in such a gruesome way-"

"I-I get it..." Dirk muttered, turning away. "Can we not talk about them? I get what you're trying to say," he added quietly.

Zahid nodded slowly, shifting in his chair. "But these violent outbursts that Noor has told me about simply aren't the way to handle this. I didn't mind your scuffles a year ago because they were organized... poorly organized, but organized. But now you're picking fights left and right, trying to go fisticuffs with anyone who inconveniences you," he stated. He never raised his voice as he spoke with Dirk. He was stern and direct, but he kept his voice calm to get his point across.

"I know. I know," Dirk said again. "I'm... I'm going to try to be better. It's just been hard. Everything makes me so angry so fast," he trailed off, rubbing his nape, a little embarrassed at the fact that he had to openly explain what he was feeling.

"I'm proud of you," Zahid said simply. "I want you to know that. All these years that you and my Noor have been friends, I've seen you as a son to me. Despite this small bump in your attitude, I know the young, fiery youth that fought the neighbor kids to defend the honor of my shop is still in you, he's just backed into a corner and doesn't want to come out,"

"You... you're a damn wise man, you know that?" Dirk replied with a laugh. A small, lighthearted laugh passed between the three of them, before they were loudly shushed by the other refugees in the warehouse who were trying to sleep. The lights were dimmed as the young blonde laid on his side, staring into the darkness.

Dirk wouldn't immediately get better. In fact, a part of that temper would probably never leave him until the day he died, a day that could be much nearer than he would expect as far as anyone knew. But his attitude would improve nonetheless. As the days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, he would take small steps to being, as the ever so kind soldiers might call him, "less of a little shit." He and Noor would meet up with Armin, who would bring his other two friends along. They would chat. They would relay stories of what it was like living in Shiganshina, the small things from daily life that they had grown to miss.

These short conversations, these baby steps that Dirk was taking, solidified a new resolve in him. He had always planned on joining the military, but now he was certain. As they spoke of that simple life they missed so much, a new rage, cold as steel, settled in the pit of Dirk's stomach.

He was going to learn to fight back against the Titans.

And goddammit was he going to fight as soon as he could.


	4. A Dim Light in the Darkness of Despair

Despite all efforts to have the refugees till the land and plant more food, there still wasn't enough to feed everyone that had come from within Wall Maria. No matter how much food they made, the sea of hungry mouths remained endless. And so, the following year, in 846, the central government used a large sum of refugees in an operation geared at "reclaiming Wall Maria," as they said. However, just about anyone with a bit of common sense could recognize one thing: no matter how many people, refugees or warriors, you round up, an unarmed "army" stood no chance against the titans within Wall Maria. Even with properly equipped soldiers acting as defense for the refugees, the sheer number of titans that had already entered the walls made the task impossible. Out of the two hundred fifty thousand citizens, approximately 20 percent of the overall population, little more than a hundred people came back from the operation alive. Even if the government would never admit it, the casualties of the operation did provide one ever so small upside: the food shortage was alleviated, if only by a little. 

Armin sat against the wall of a building, clutching the hat his grandfather had given him. Armin was a smart boy, he knew that when his grandfather had left, he wouldn't be coming back. And yet, no amount of facing the facts could ever truly prepare someone for the grim news that they weren't one of the lucky ones. To Armin's left stood Eren Jaeger. To his left, Dirk leaned up against the wall, his arms crossed. Aynoor and Mikasa stood away from the building, facing the other three.

"Some plan that was," Dirk spat, gritting his teeth as he spoke. "The fuck did they think they would accomplish? Did they have some plan to fix the hole in the wall too? Or were they just going to improvise and use all the bodies they racked up along the way-"

"Dirk!" Noor exclaimed, crossing her arms and glaring at the older boy. "Could you at least try to be considerate?! Just look at Armin!"

"... You're right," Dirk muttered, scratching his head and looking away. "Sorry about that, Armin. Guess I went off a bit too much," the blonde said apologetically. He was met with a small reply of forgiveness from between the younger blonde's choked sobs.

"It's all because of the titans." Eren muttered, turning his head as his emerald eyes settled on his crying friend. "If we destroy them, we can retake our home!" he exclaimed, his gaze now shifting towards the others. He squatted down, bringing his head level with Armin's as he continued speaking. 

"Armin," he said slowly, "I'm enlisting next year."

The next words to come from Armin's mouth surprised everyone. "Me too," he said quietly. Eren, Noor, and Dirk all looked at the blonde boy, a shared face of surprise passing between them, though Mikasa remained as stone faced as ever. "I'm joining too!" he declared louder, holding his head higher now.

"I'll go as well," Mikasa stated, her gaze fixed between Armin and Mikasa.

"Mikasa?" Eren asked, looking up at her. "You don't have to you know. Didn't you say that it was important to survive?" he asked her.

"I did. Which is why I'm joining," Mikasa replied simply. "I'll go, and I'll keep you from dying."

Mikasa's comment caused a small chuckle to push past Dirk's lips. The blonde looked between the rest of them, the light of the nearby lamp glimmering like a flame behind his green eyes. "If you think for a damn second that I'm not coming too," he said, beginning to smirk a little as he spoke, "then you guys would be the dumbest people I could have ever met!"

"Yeah!" Noor exclaimed, the same fires of determination that burned within Dirk shining within her as well. "I'm going to finally step up and protect Papa! Besides, someone has to keep this knucklehead alive too!" she exclaimed, jerking a thumb in Dirk's direction.

Eren looked between the small group of friends, some he had known for years, others for just a few months. He rose to his feet again, his head held high as he spoke. "All right. The five of us. We go in together!" he exclaimed as the rest of them held their gaze on him, the night finally starting to wear them down.

And so, the five of them kept that promise. As the next year rolled around, they all enlisted into the 104th Cadet Corps. Armin, Mikasa, and Eren were all finally of age, where as Dirk and Noor had been too busy working to feed themselves and Zahid to consider enlisting in the 103rd. After spending the better part of a day within the confined space of a horse drawn carriage, Dirk set foot in the training fields. Held within the Southern District of Wall Rose, the training camp was a vast area, consisting of various areas flat terrain for every kind of brutal training that a person could think of, as well as a small forest for practicing the 3D Maneuver Gear. As the crowd of cadets stood at the ready, a voice cried out, shattering the silence.

"We now begin the enlistment ceremony for the 104th Trainee Corps!"

The voice boomed across the field, catching the attention of every cadet who stood at the ready. A bald man stepped forward as he continued his speech.

"I am Keith Shadis, and I had the misfortune to be assigned to train you bastards, and I'm not here to welcome you at all!" the man shouted as he surveyed the crowd. The only hair on his face was a small beard growing from his chin. The wrinkles in his face bore testament to just how long he had been working within the military, and the thick dark rings that seemed to wrap around his sunken eyes showed just how long he had been dealing with trainees and their endless bullshit.

"Right now, you're mere cattle, fit for nothing but titan food!" he continued, his gaze panning the crowd ever so slowly. "In three years, we'll take you worthless pieces of crap and train you! Give you means to fight the titans. In three years, when you stand before a titan, will you still be useless food? Or will you be a noble wall, shielding the King?! Or perhaps, one of humanity's glorious soldiers that slay titans? You will decide!"

The man, Keith, began walking forward into the orderly lines of soon to be soldiers. Dirk kept his head forward, though his eyes walked as he stopped directly in front of Armin.

"You there!" Keith shouted into Armin's face.

"Yes, sir!" Armin replied, speaking clearly as he saluted. His right hand, clenched into a fist, was placed against his chest, while his left hand planted firmly behind his back.

"Who are you?"

"Armin Arlert, from Shiganshina!"

"Yeah? That's a stupid fucking name! Your parents give you that?"

"My grandfather!"

"Arlert, what are you doing here?"

"Trying to aid humanity's victory!"

As Keith spoke, he seemed to lean closer and closer into Armin's face. "That is indeed wonderful," he spoke, glaring daggers into the poor young boy's soul, "then you will feed the fucking titans. Row 3, about face!" he called out. He planted his hand on top of Armin's head, spinning him around as the rest of the row quickly followed suit.

As Keith made his way down the rows, he kept his interrogations going seemingly at random. Thomas Wagner from the Trost district was next, though he was forced to practice his shouting in a cattle shed for being "too soft".

As Dirk's row eventually turned around, he caught a glimpse of two other men clad in the same trench coats as Keith was. As the bald ball of fury made his way down the rows, Dirk managed to catch a small part of the two onlookers' conversation.

"There he goes again... when you were a trainee, your first day was just the same," The first man spoke, an older man with gray hair that was combed back, save for a single bunch that seemed to stubbornly fall down his face. A pair of silver, circular rimmed glasses rested on his nose, a small chuckle pushing past his lips as he watched the instructor strike fear into Mina Karolina, a young black haired girl from Karanes.

"It brings back memories," the second man replied. In contrast to the aged man who spoke to him, this young man's hair was a bit of a curly mess, seeming to fall around his head wherever it pleased. "What's the point of screaming at them anyway?" he then asked.

"It's a rite of passage," the older man explained, a smile pulling at his lips. "We force them to abandon who they are, then raise them from nothing as pure soldiers. It is a necessary process."

"Oh? It seems not all of them are being subjected to this process," the blonde soldier noted, watching as Keith walked right passed a girl with bright blonde hair and pale blue eyes.

"There is no need for those who have already undergone the rite of passage," the first man replied. "If I were to guess, they all probably went through hell two years ago. You can see it in the way they hold themselves up, as well as the look in their eyes. Now then, let's go. We have work to do,"

And with that, the two men walked away. As Dirk's attention returned to the "rite of passage", Keith had bent down, now staring into the eyes of a young man. His face was long like a horse, his hair a platinum blonde with dark, short cut sideburns.

"Who are you?!" he shouted, the process repeating itself.

"Jean Kirschstein, from Trost!" the trainee replied loudly.

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

At this point, the trainee, Jean, straightened up a little, his nervous expression slowly creeping into a smile. "Joining the Military Police, for a life deep within the walls." he stated.

"Oh! I see! You want access to the interior, do you?" Keith asked, a wide grin plastered on his face. He almost seemed to be talking in a nice manner, but after the last five cadets, Dirk only had to wait a mere moment before watching their instructor drive his forehead into Jean's nose, cutting him off mid sentence and dropping him to his knees. "Who the hell said you could sit down?!" he shouted as the horse faced cadet fell. "Anyone who can't handle this much will never make the Military Police, let alone graduate!"

The bald man's next target was Marco Bott, a black haired young man with light brown eyes and a sea of freckles dotting along his face, who proudly spoke of joining the Military Police to offer himself to the king. The instructor got a real kick out of that one, stating that the King wanted nothing to do with him.

After Marco was Connie Springer, a short male whose hair was shaved incredibly close to his head. His answer was almost good, though he somehow managed to get the salute backwards, placing his left hand over his chest and his right behind his back. Keith grabbed him by the head and lifted him off the ground, beginning to lecture him about what the salute meant and how much of a dumbass he was. In all honesty, the constant berating was beginning to get repetitive in Dirk's opinion.

Then a single crunching sound cut the instructor off.

After the sheer amount of time Keith had spent shouting without end, the crunch was somehow even louder, cutting through the air like a sharp blade and silencing everyone. Dirk felt every muscle in his body tense as his eyes turned to the source of the sound.

There, in the row immediately after Connie, stood a girl. Her light brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, falling down right between her shoulders in the back. Her bangs parted slightly left of center, framing her light brown eyes, with two longer strands of hair that framed the rest of her face and hung just beneath her chin.

And there.

Clasped tightly in her right hand.

Was a goddamn potato.

There was a sound of a body hitting the ground as the instructor dropped Connie, beginning to walk to the girl. "Hey, you..." he began, the calmness in his voice only making his words that much more terrifying, "what are you doing?"

The girl looked around nervously before taking yet another bite of her stolen food. Everyone around her could only stare as Keith got up in her face, looming over her as he began shouting.

"You're the one I'm talking to! You, goddamn it! Who the hell are you?!" he cried out, the girl looking back at him with wide eyes as she continued chewing the food in her mouth.

The girl swallowed the bite of food she had taken, slamming her hands into her body in a proper salute as she looked on as if nothing had happened. "Sasha Braus, from Dauper village, Wall Rose South District!" she shouted in response, holding the potato against her chest as she saluted.

"Sasha Braus, what are you holding in your right hand?" Keith asked, the calmness in his voice so out of place that it looped right back around to being utterly terrifying.

"A boiled potato!" Sasha shouted in reply. "The kitchen had a fresh batch, and I couldn't resist."

"Did you steal it? Why? Why would you choose to eat a potato now?" Keith then asked, his voice unwavering.

"Letting it get cold would've been a waste, so I decided I should eat it now." Sasha replied.

 _Wait... she actually doesn't see anything wrong with her actions?! She's gone completely crazy!_ Dirk thought to himself as he stared between the two of them. He realized that he hadn't blinked as he watched them, his eyes tinging as he finally closed them for a brief moment.

"Well, I still don't understand. Why the hell would you eat that potato?" Keith asked, re-asking his question again.

"Are... you asking me why people eat potatoes?" Sasha asked as she frowned a little, trying to make sense of what the instructor was asking her. After a brief moment, she gasped softly, as if she had a grand idea. Her other hand came out from behind her as she grabbed the boiled potato, breaking it in half. She held the half she hadn't bitten up to the instructor.

"You... can have half if you'd like," she muttered quietly, smiling sheepishly as the instructor took it.

There was a brief moment of silence. A calm before the storm as Keith held the food. Then, in one swift motion, he both knocked Sasha's half from her hand and threw the half she had given her into the dirt.

Then the instructor exploded.

"What... the FUCK... DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BRAUS?! YOU BETTER START FUCKING RUNNING! AND I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU STOP UNTIL YOU'RE GODDAMN LEGS GIVE OUT!"

Unsurprisingly, Keith had kept his word. As everyone else's first day was filled with tiring, yet manageable exercise, poor Sasha had really been banished to run for what seemed like the whole day. As the sun began to set, a small group of trainees had gathered outside the dining hall to chat while she ran.

"He's... really still making that potato girl run," Connie said, watching as Sasha kept pressing on, occasionally stumbling, but still running nonetheless.

"And yet, she's been going for five hours straight now!" Dirk replied with a small laugh. "Honestly, I'm impressed!"

"It really is something," Noor added, biting the inside of her cheek as she wondered how much longer the girl would go. "Though, she shouldn't have stolen that potato if she knew there would have been consequences," she said, shrugging softly as she leaned against the railing.

"If you ask me, she seemed more distraught when she was told she wouldn't be getting dinner than when she was told she had to run until she dropped," Connie stated. "If I remember correctly, Dauper village is a small hunting village deep in the mountains,"

Eren let out a small hum as he looked up, watching a carriage slowly being drawn back up the hill they came from. "Hm? What's that?" he asked as the carriage began to recede out of sight.

"The dropouts," Mina, the small black haired girl replied. "They requested a transfer, to the frontier."

"Already? But it's only the first day." Armin muttered as he began watching the dropouts as well.

"Guess it was only a matter of time," Eren replied. "If you aren't strong enough, you have to leave. That's just how it is,"

Marco, who was leaning up against the railing as well, realized something in that moment. "Hey," he said slowly, standing up straight as he spoke, "he didn't ask where you were from, did he?"

"Shiganshina," Eren replied, smiling as he placed a hand on Armin's shoulder. "the same as him. These two as well," he added, pointing at Dirk and Noor who stood behind him. An excited look began to creep along Connie's face as he leaned closer to them. 

"Then that means you were there on that day, yeah? You saw the Colossal Titan?!" Connie asked. He pulled Eren into the dining hall, the rest of them following him closely. There was a brief moment of silence while everyone grabbed their dinners, before Connie practically shouted to everyone that Eren had seen the Colossal Titan, which only attracted an even bigger crowd.

"Like I said, I saw it. We all did," Eren said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Just how big was it?"

"What did it look like?"

"I heard it was big enough to step over the walls!"

"Me too!"

The questions and comments all came at once as people flocked around Eren.

"What? No way. It was just big enough to look over the walls," Eren replied with a small laugh. "As for what it looked like, it was huge, obviously. Other than that, I guess it didn't have much skin," he explained to the crowd.

Dirk had been sitting in a different corner of the room, eating silently with Noor. They had both seen everything Eren was talking about, and neither of them saw a need to join in with the crowd.

"What about the Armored Titan that broke Wall Maria?" somebody asked.

 _The one who killed dad..._ Dirk thought, his teeth clenching. While the armored titan may not have directly killed his father, the rubble that crushed him was caused by the armored titan, and in the pit of his stomach, Dirk blamed it all on that armored bastard regardless.

"They call it that, but it looked like a normal Titan to me." Eren replied as he continued eating. Dirk had to admit, Eren was rather calm as he explained every detail about the event that ruined their lives.

"Then... Then what's a normal titan like?"

That was when the mood seemed to shift. Eren paused for a minute, and rightfully so. A perfectly normal titan was what had devoured his mother before his eyes. Eren's reaction was similar to Dirk's. Eren dropped his spoon, covering his mouth with a hand to stop himself from gagging, whereas Dirk's hand fell into his pocket. His hand came into contact with that leather strap, his fingers wrapping around the wring at the end.

_"If I don't make it out of this, you give this to your father. But for now, you need to run!"_

His mother's words continued to echo in his mind. He had failed her. Failed to give the ring back to his father. The craftsmanship of the ring, as well as the fine stone inlaid in the top could really only mean one thing: It was the ring Dirk's father gave to her when he proposed. His father had saved up for years to afford a ring of such quality, and as cheesy as Dirk would have found the gift under any other circumstance, the ring was all he had left from his parents now. 

The blonde boy's free hand clenched into a fist as he looked back at the crowd. "Hey!" he called out, pulling there attention away from Eren. "I think that's enough questions. So how about you all sit the fuck back down and eat before you make the poor kid throw up!"

The rest of the meal had gone mostly without incident. Dirk vaguely recalled Eren talking about joining the Survey Corps, which provoked a smart ass comment from Jean, but the bell sounding curfew had rung before it could escalate any further. At the sound of the bell, Dirk stood up, stretching a bit before making for the door.

"See you tomorrow for another wonderful day of torture," he muttered to Noor, who let out a small laugh at his comment as she got up to leave as well. 

_A titan, tearing his mother's head and chest free from the rest of her body._

_A gruesome tug of war between the two smaller titans immediately below._

_Falaq, ripped limb from limb as a last service to Zahid and Noor, giving them just enough time to get through the gates._

_Flying rubble. A stone, streaking like a bullet, slicing across his cheek, leaving a scar when it healed._

_A boulder, burying his father into the dirt for the rest of eternity._

_The Armored Titan, it's jaw slowly opening as released it's thin jet of hot steam._

Dirk breathed in sharply as he woke up. Cold sweat beaded along his forehead and across his body. He sat up, rolling out of the cot he had been assigned and holding his head.

 _Dammit... My head hurts._ He thought to himself. Deciding that a short walk might clear his head, he got up and quietly snuck out of the men's barracks. The cool night air felt pleasant against his skin, which was still ever so slightly damp with sweat. As he began walking, he caught sight of another figure, slowly trudging along the same path as him.

Seconds had quickly turned to minutes, but minutes slowly dragged on into hours. She had been running since the sun was still high in the sky, and now it was already nightfall. Sasha silently cursed her upbringing in a small hunting village. With hunting as the primary method of acquiring food, Sasha had naturally built quite the endurance growing up, but even then, this amount of running was absolutely absurd. Whenever she felt like she had run enough, Instructor Shadis was always around the corner, ready to yell at her to keep running. As the potato thief slowly made her way down the path, the exhaustion began kicking in. Her vision moved in and out of focus, the steps where she would trip becoming more frequent. 

"Finally... done..." she muttered quietly as she approached the barracks. Before she could get any further, she blacked out completely as she fell to the earth.

But she never seemed to hit the ground.

After a brief moment, the girl opened her eyes again slowly. She soon registered that someone had caught her before she fully collapsed. Whoever had caught her lowered her gently onto the ground, a much nicer alternative to letting her simply fall.

After a brief moment, another set of footsteps could be heard. The young girl's nostrils flared as the scent of food caught her nose. With a renewed sense of vigor, she leapt up, launching forward towards the source of the smell and biting down, causing a startled cry from whoever had caught her. After a brief moment, the taste registered as well, and she realized,

"This... this is bread!" she exclaimed, looking to the short angel who had brought her food.

"That's all I could get, but I saved it for you, but you should drink some water first, or you might choke," the small girl said. Sasha turned her attention to the girl who had brought her food, and just behind her was a boy, his unruly blonde hair made into a rat's nest from too much tossing and turning.

"Don't look at me," Dirk said with a laugh. "I just came out here to clear my head and you happened to collapse right in front of me. By the way, next time I would try finding better places to sleep than on the ground if I were you,"

"Hey, what the hell are you three doing?" another voice called out from the dark. Another woman, with thin eyes, brown hair pulled into a low hanging ponytail, and freckles approached, coming into view as she stepped into the light of the nearby torch. As she approached, Sasha began wolfing down her food as if the girl might try taking it.

"Well... you see, she spent the whole day running-" the other girl began speaking, only to be cut off.

"So you're trying to do a good deed?" the new girl asked, glaring down at them. "And what about you? Trying to pull some Romeo shit? Or are you just stalking?" she then asked, turning her attention to Dirk. As she spoke, Sasha had finished the loaf of bread, her eyes rolling back as she collapsed again, this time landing in the small girl's lap as she fell asleep.

"What? No! Like I said, I just wanted to take a damn walk. With the way Sasha collapsed, she could have seriously hurt herself if she hit her head against the rocks. You can't say I'm a bad person for not letting that happen, can you? And I didn't go out of my way or anything either. She practically collapsed right in front of me," Dirk explained, only earning him an eye roll and a "Whatever," from the brunette.

"So you went out of your way to sneak some food and water to the potato girl. Was the effort worth what you got out of it?" she asked, turning back to the girl who had brought food. Dirk turned as well, finally getting a good look at the bringer of food. She was incredibly small, with bright blonde hair and sky blue eyes. In fact, she looked oddly similar to Armin if you were to squint a little.

"Well, it doesn't matter," the brunette continued without waiting for a response. "I'm carrying her to bed. Unlike you two, I'm doing this favor so she'll owe me later. I'm looking forward to a lot of fun from this idiot,"

The girl then stooped down, lifting Sasha up and draping her over her shoulders as she began walking off. Dirk rose to his feet slowly, dusting himself off and sighing.

"Well that was... something else," he muttered, looking back at the blonde girl. "I don't think we've met. After Instructor Shadis went off on Sasha, he stopped interrogating people, so I never got to learn anyone else's names," he said with a small laugh.

"Oh! I'm Christa. The one who carried Sasha away was Ymir. I would say she's not always that bad but... I would be lying," the girl replied with a nervous laugh.

"Right... I don't doubt it," Dirk said as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm Dirk von Riegan. Look... I'd love to stay and chat or whatever it is you do at this hour, but I think I've had my fun for the middle of the night. So I'm going to go back to bed now, and if I ever think I need another late night walk, I'll just walk in the other direction. I suggest you get some sleep too though. We're only a day in and I can already tell that his is going to be absolutely brutal, so try not to stay up to late, 'kay?"

And with that, Dirk turned and began walking too. He returned to his bed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he laid back down, trying to make sense of what had happened to him.

_Sasha. Stole a potato today. She might steal more food later. Or she'll wise up and won't have to run all day again tomorrow. Who knows._

_Christa. She seems exceptionally kind. She just wanted to help out._

_Ymir. Bit of a bitch honestly. From what she said about doing Sasha a favor so she'll owe her, she seems to only care about herself._

Dirk let out a sigh as he stared at the bottom of the bunk above him. Between the recruits he had gotten to know earlier today and the ones he had just gotten to know, he decided he could really only use one word to describe just about everyone here.

"Everyone here is fucking crazy..."


	5. Maneuver Gear

The following morning was kicked off with a role call. Instructor Keith made sure to give the Cadets their regular morning dose of insults. In addition, he had a rather special announcement to give for the second day of training.

"Now! As you pathetic sacks of shit may have noticed, there seems to be far less of you than there were yesterday!" he shouted, his voice stern as a frown deepened the wrinkles in his forehead, wrinkles that should be noted were already nearly as deep as his sunken eyes. "That would be because," he continued, "those who are gone were, somehow, even more pathetic than you lot! Those sorry sacks of rat shit couldn't even handle their first day of LIGHT exercise! They have all been returned to the fields to be the titan food they were always meant to be!" the bald man shouted. It would appear that not even dropping out of the training regiment could save you from Keith's apparently never-ending wrath.

The role was followed by a breakfast that they were only given mere minutes to eat. While everyone was able to eat rather quickly, Dirk made note of the fact that none could have possibly eaten faster than Sasha.

_ She must still be starving... Christa's bread definitely helped, but clearly it wasn't enough.  _ He thought to himself, causing a small chuckle to push past his lips.

Breakfast was fast, as no one had time to chat based on how little time they were given. Their first exercise of the day was something that everyone had been looking forward to. While the experience was nerve racking to think about, there was an undeniable excitement surrounding Dirk and his friends.

Today marked the beginning of 3D Maneuver Gear training.

"First, we'll evaluate what you have!" Keith shouted to the recruits. He stood before an array of contraptions. The machines behind him were shaped like giant tripods, with a metal fixture at the top which bent outwards, forming an arc. At the edges of the arc were cables, which would be fixed to the Trainee's uniforms. "Anyone unable to accomplish this wouldn't even be useful as a fucking decoy! The failures will be sent to the frontier, where they will work for food for the rest of their sorry lives!" he continued.

As the cables were fastened into Dirk's uniform, attaching to the loops of his belt, he noticed the two men from the previous day, the older man with glasses and the dirty-blonde one who followed him.

"These involve only the rudimentary basics, but even at this stage, you can see their potential with the Maneuver Gear," the older man explained. He ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, keeping his hair in line, with the exception of that one stubborn strand that refused to slick back with the rest of his hair. The pair stopped behind the crowd of trainees, and the man who spoke glanced over, nodding to someone off to Dirk's left. "Look," he stated, directing his assistant's attention. "She's steady as a rock. She knows exactly what to do."

As the man behind Dirk began operating some sort of crank, the cables suddenly tensed. Dirk was slowly lifted into the air, and he finally understood the purpose of every piece of the military uniform. As his belt was pulled on, the tension was spread all across the leather straps that ran around his body. The straps around his legs in particular, which wrapped around his thighs, before splitting off to run around the knees, and reconnecting under his feet within his boots, acted as a sort of harness to hold his weight. He remembered his mother briefly explaining how everything worked, but he hadn't been paying much attention when she explained how she kept her balance. After some initial wobbling, however, Dirk came to understand the harness, and he settled in. He found he quite liked the feeling of almost floating. His head turned to the left as the older man commented on the girl beside him, and his eyes widened slightly at the spectacle.

Mikasa sat in her harness as if she had done it a thousand times already. There was no wobbling, no look of focus on her face as she tried to keep her balance. In fact, the younger girl looked almost bored with her situation as she sat, suspended in the air.

"Looks like we have a lot of talent this year," the grey haired man stated as he gazed at the rest of the trainees. Dirk turned, looking towards some of the others who were in harnesses. Connie, while staying upright, was constantly shifting his weight. Dirk noted that he was either fighting to stay up, or he was testing how much he could move around while suspended. Jean, the horse faced one who Keith headbutted the day before, looked like he was keeping steady, but as Dirk looked closer, he was struggling ever so slightly. Sasha was actually sitting in her harness, swinging back and forth slowly. She looked over at Dirk, smiling and waving as she sat. Noor didn't seem to be struggling either, as the small girl kept steady, giving Dirk a thumbs up when she found her balance, which he returned, smiling back at Sasha.

"Um, what about him?" the blonde haired man asked, pointing off somewhere to Dirk's right. As Dirk followed the man's finger, his jaw nearly scraped against the rock ground below him. The grey haired man turned as well, chuckling as he smiled sadly.

While everyone else seemed to be doing so well with keeping their balance, Eren was hanging upside down, a look of annoyance and confusion plastered onto his face. 

"That's what I mean," the older man explained, readjusting his glasses. "You can have all the will in the world, but not necessarily the talent."

"What the hell are you doing, Jaegar?! Pick yourself up goddammit!" Keith shouted. He got down on to one knee as he spoke so he could shout right in Eren's face. Dirk noticed the students surrounding Eren chuckling at his failure. With a hum, he slowly began leaning back, until his legs swung out from under him, leaving him also upside down.

"Dirk? What the hell are you doing? You're making yourself look bad!" Noor called out to him, huffing as she watched him act like a fool.

"Hey, hey! Shut up for a minute!" Dirk shouted back. He bit the end of his thumb softly as he thought, assessing the situation Eren was in at the moment. The blonde boy then brought his chest up, crunching into a ball as he threw his legs back, using the momentum to right himself again.  _ Odd... that's not very hard at all. I thought Eren and I had roughly the same amount of strength... unless I was wrong?  _ Dirk thought to himself as he let the blood slowly drain from his head back down to his legs.

Later that evening, when the rest of the trainees had cleared out, Eren stood, reattached to the cables while Armin, Mikasa, Noor, and Dirk all watched.

"Stick to the basics and you should be fine," Mikasa instructed. "Don't worry about doing well. Watch the balance and stay centered. Slowly rest your weight on the belts attached to your hips and feet."

"Stay calm, and you can do it. I mean... even I was able to," Armin pitched in, his hand resting on the crank, ready to raise Eren up.

"Look for a sweet spot," Noor added, her arms crossed as she watched him. "There should be a spot where it just feels natural,"

"And if you end up upside down, just tuck your chest in like you're doing a sit up and kick your legs back at the same time. That should get you back upright," Dirk added, smirking slightly as he watched.

"Okay, I think I can do it this time!" Eren exclaimed. While he sounded mostly certain, there was a slight hint of nervousness to the brunette's voice.

Armin nodded when Eren gave him the go-ahead, slowly cranking him up. As the cables tightened, Eren was slowly lifted into the air. And yet, despite his best efforts, all seemed to be in vain. First he leaned backwards, then he panicked, and in an attempt to right himself, leaned forward too far, which caused him to fall forwards, his head slamming into the ground. There was a conjoined shout of astonishment as the young man collided with the ground. Armin and Dirk quickly began removing the cables while Mikasa lowered the rest of his body to the ground. Noor had run off when Eren lost control, and she quickly returned with a roll of bandages. She hastily wrapped Eren's head, and Dirk and Mikasa propped Eren up on their shoulders, dragging him to the dining hall. 

"Hey, Daz... Isn't that the kid from yesterday? The one who said he'd kill all the titans?"

Dirk heard the beginning of the conversation as he helped Eren sit down at a table. He looked up instinctively, searching for the owner of the voice. His eyes landed upon an older looking male, with a thick, hook shaped nose who was looking at them, a smirk pulling at his lip. The person he was speaking to, the one called Daz, had short, grey hair, with deep set wrinkles in his face, giving him the appearance of being far older than he truly was.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be shipped off to the frontier tomorrow. We don't have enough food for the worthless rejects!" the hook nosed man continued. Dirk grit his teeth, his fists clenching as he made to stand up, but a hand planted itself firmly against his forearm. He looked up, his eyes meeting Aynoor's. No words were spoken between the two friends, she simply shook her head, and Dirk sat down, letting out a small sigh. She didn't have to say anything to him to get her point across:  _ They're not worth your time _

"Eren." Mikasa said, grabbing Eren's shoulder and squeezing it. The brown haired youth had been gazing off into space, seemingly as a result of his head injury, and the harsh pressure of Mikasa grabbing his shoulder brought him back.

"There's no point in worrying," Armin stated, watching his friend as he ate. "You just have to figure it out tomorrow."

"I'm pathetic..." Eren muttered, his gaze beginning to look vacant again as he stared at the wooden table. "I'll never be able to kill them like this..."

"Hey! Don't be like that!" Noor exclaimed in reply, her cheeks puffing out ever so slightly. 

"Yeah! You just haven't gotten the hang of it yet. You just need more practice," Dirk added, twirling his spoon in his hand.

"You should let that idea go."

Everyone seemed taken aback by Mikasa's words. Despite how good of friends she and Eren seemed to be, she spoke so unbelievably blunt to him. Without a single word of encouragement, she continued. "You should give up on being a soldier. There are other ways to fight than by throwing away your life."

"Listen here," Eren shot back, turning to face her as he spoke, "I saw what happened that day! You really think you'll convince me like that?!"

"But it doesn't matter how much you want it." Mikasa deadpanned, staring down at the table and not meeting his gaze.

"Why not?"

"It isn't your decision whether you end up a soldier or not, Eren."

Eren drew back from her statement, gritting his teeth. He frowned, turning back to his food and eating quietly. In fact, none of them spoke for the rest of their meal. As the bell for curfew sounded, everyone began grabbing their plates and cups to be dropped off for someone to pick up and wash. Mikasa began speaking, though Dirk had already crossed the dining hall by then and barely heard her. He thought she was saying something about returning to the frontier with Eren, but that would be ridiculous, as Mikasa seemed like she was easily the best out of all of them.

"The trick to staying upright?" Connie asked, smirking as he looked between the small group that had gathered by the cots. "Sorry, but I'm a genius. All I can say is to feel it."

"Feel it? You couldn't decide where you wanted to keep your weight!" Dirk shot back, elbowing Connie playfully, a smile forming on his face. "Or was all that shifting and shuffling part of 'feeling it'?"

"Actually, I'd like you to tell me, how are you still sane, after you humiliated yourself like that?" Jean asked. Whereas Connie had a somewhat playful smirk as he gloated about his skills, Jean wore what could only be described as an almost sinister sneer. At a first glance, anyone could tell that he was thoroughly enjoying the idea of being better than Eren. 

"Guys, come on! I'm begging you here!" Eren pleaded, taking a shaky step towards Connie and Jean.

"But didn't you say just yesterday something like, 'People who aren't strong enough should leave'?" Connie asked, facing Eren and crossing his arms. "Am I wrong? Or was it, 'If you don't have the talent, you have to leave'? Which was it?"

"What about Reiner and Bertolt?" Dirk asked, glancing over at the two young men at the other end of the barracks. They both looked to be about Dirk's age, though Bertolt was freakishly tall. Of course, Reiner was tall as well, though he had far more muscle mass out of the two of them.

"Sorry... But I just don't see any 'trick' to just hanging there. I don't think I can give you the advice you're looking for." Reiner stated, his arms crossed. Eren had promptly made his way to the pair, shortly followed by Armin and Dirk.

"We'll just have to hope for the best tomorrow," Armin stated, signs of fatigue visible in the dark rings forming under his eyes. Dirk could tell he was ready to try and get some sleep, a luxury they rarely saw these days.

"You three are from Shiganshina, right?" Bertolt asked, finally speaking up as he looked at them.

"Yes... Why?" Armin asked. He had been standing up to return to his own cot, but he slowly sat back down, his interest piqued. 

"Then you should know how terrifying the Titans are," Bertolt explained. "Why did you decide to be soldiers?"

"I'm not like Eren or Dirk," Armin began, "I didn't see them at close range. But when I thought about how the government forced people into that insane plan to retake titan territory, I had to do something,"

"I felt like I had nowhere else to go," Dirk stated, looking between Reiner and Bertolt. "My mother was in the Garrison, my father a simple merchant. I lost both of them on that day. For the past couple of years, it's just been myself, Noor, and her father, Zahid, but he was lucky enough to make it out alive, even if he lost his legs in the process. I'm not as hell bent on revenge as Eren is, but I would be lying if I said revenge didn't sound... sweet," he said slowly.

"Where are you two from?" Armin asked quickly, turning the attention back on Reiner and Bertolt.

"Reiner and I come from a small village in the mountains of southeast Wall Maria. It's not like the big towns by the rivers, and the news was slow to reach us," Bertolt replied, his gaze dropping. "In fact... The titans reached us before the news did," he concluded, a sad chuckle escaping him.

"The animals were unusually restless that morning," Reiner explained. "Pretty soon, we heard this ungodly rumbling sound. Pretty soon, we all realized it was footsteps. And with the footsteps... came the titans."

"Hey... Why don't we go for a walk?" Reiner asked suddenly.

"You guys go... I'm going to get some shuteye," Dirk replied. He hopped down from the cot they were sitting on, making his way back to his own bed as the other four young men left.

_ Rubble. _

_ Dust. _

_ Screams. _

_ Mother, _

_ Dead. _

_ Father, _

_ Dead. _

_ Falaq, _

_ Ripped apart. _

_ Noor, _

_ Torn in half. _

_ Zahid, _

_ Crushed beneath a building. _

_ Mikasa, gone. Eren, gone. Armin, gone.  _

_ Everyone, _

_ gone. _

_ dead. _

_ A field of broken swords. _

_ No _

_ One sword. _

_ His own. _

_ Bloodied. Broken. Almost beaten. _

_ Rubble. Dust. Blood. _

_ His own hand, reaching out for a blinding light. _

The light of morning pushed past Dirk's eyes. He groaned softly, the waking bell ringing loudly for all the cadets to hear. He cursed quietly, rolling out of his cot and throwing on his uniform. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, tidied himself up, and ran outside, joining the crowd of Cadets who had gathered to watch the morning's big event: Eren was going to try to balance again.

"Think he'll be able to do it?" Sasha asked. She was standing on the other side of Dirk from Noor. The three of them, along with Mikasa, Armin, Connie, Reiner, and Bertolt, had all managed to squeeze to the front of the crowd.

"He has to. He's got way too much guts to fail," Dirk replied. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt a sense of confidence that day. It was like Eren was a whole new person compared to the day before.

"Eren Jaeger, are you ready?" Instructor Shadis asked, his sunken eyes prying into the cadet's very soul, as per usual.

"Yes!" Eren shouted, nodding quickly.

"Begin!" Shadis commanded. A cadet began slowly turning the crank on the training device, and Eren was slowly lifted into the air.

An atmosphere of shock passed over the crowd as Eren was hoisted into the sky. For as his feet left the ground, he didn't fall. In fact, he was perfectly upright. His legs wide, and his arms out for a little extra balance, Eren Jaeger had mastered the 3D maneuver gear! The cadets in the crowd whooped and cheered at his success, and Eren grinned.

His smile, however, quickly faded. The cheers were just as quick to vanish, as Eren began leaning back. Just like before, Eren somehow managed to find himself upside down, his arms just barely touching the ground as he tried to push himself back up.

Despite Eren's protests, Instructor Shadis had Eren lowered back to the ground. There was a brief moment of silence, before he looked to the cadet who was operating the crank. 

"Wagner! Switch belts with Jaeger!"

After a short intermission, Eren was clipped back into place, now wearing the belt of one Thomas Wagner. As he was hoisted into the air, nothing happened. He sat, visibly nervous at the thought of falling again, but no such falling occurred. He sat, rather steady, in the air.

"Your equipment was faulty," Shadis stated, watching Eren as he balanced in the air. "The fitting on your belt was damaged. I've never heard of this part getting damaged. I'll have to add it to the maintenance checklist,"

"So, he managed to stay upright for a bit, even with a broken belt?" Noor asked, her gaze fixed on Eren, much like everyone else at the moment.

"Impressive," Dirk muttered, smirking as he crossed his arms. "What kind of hike did you guys go on?" he asked, nudging Armin and chuckling.

"Then... Then I passed, right?" Eren asked, still balancing on the cables.

"You're fine," Keith stated. He would never admit it, but in that moment, he himself was resisting a smile. "Commence training!" he shouted, turning to the rest of the cadets.

The rest of the day was spent being introduced to the true 3D maneuver gears. There was a quick run with the full equipment in order to get used to the weight, and the cadets were shown each of the triggers, and were forced to memorize which controlled the anchors, and which released the compressed gas.

At the end of the day, a simple challenge was given.

"Listen here, chicken shits! I better see every last one of you at the end of this forest by the time I get there!" Shadis shouted from atop his horse. Without a moment's notice, he turned quickly, charging into the forest at a full gallop.

Just like that, the cadets were off. Many made smaller races among themselves. While the overall goal was to get through the forest before Shadis on horseback, the cadets couldn't help but try to race each other. Such a bet was made between our hero and his closest friend.

Noor was exceptionally quick, her light frame allowing her to accelerate rather quickly, but Dirk was close behind. He briefly lost himself as the wind rushed through his hair, a feeling of immense feeling overwhelming him as they zipped through the forest. 

"It's like we're flying!" he shouted, grinning as he hooked onto the next tree. He squoze the triggers for gas, accelerating quickly and gaining on Noor.

On newly grown wings of freedom they soared through the forest, darting between trees, their hooks flying out to keep themselves aloft. Beating Instructor Shadis to the edge of the forest was easy, they surpassed him awhile ago. however, ass Dirk and Noor raced neck and neck, a new threat emerged. Mikasa sped past them, practically a blur as she effortlessly launched herself from tree to tree, swinging as if she belonged in the harness of a maneuver gear.

"Holy shit!" Noor exclaimed as she sped forward, trying in vain to catch up. In the end, she still managed to outspeed Dirk, if only by a little. They landed at the other edge of the forest with Eren, Armin, and the others. Out of breath, but exhilarated, they all couldn't stop laughing and grinning.

Dinner was spent boasting about who went faster than who, or who could pull off more back flips before having to launch out another hook. Despite the hardships of the past few days, especially for Eren, this single moment was spent by the cadets in a state of bliss. For many, the mere idea of getting to fly like that again was almost enough to make one forget about Shadis and his merciless punishments. 

Similarly to the previous night, Dirk had elected to turn in early. He knew that the next week would be full of intensive training. Everything from individual titan killing training to coordinated teamwork was to be expected in the following days. But, rather than immediately turning in, he laid in his cot, his hand wrapped around his mother's ring in his pocket. He turned it over in his fingers, running his thumb and index finger around the surface of the accessory. And as he laid there, staring at the bunk above his, sleep did eventually take him. But his rest was, for once, not consumed by night terrors and bloodshed, but of dreams of flying.

Of broken chains.

And of wings of freedom that spread from his shoulders, carrying him to a world rid of the titans.

A world where he smiled.

Where he laughed.

A world where he could see himself taking that very ring in his pocket, and giving it to someone special, the same way his father did countless years ago.


	6. The Strength to Bring a Group Together

Two years. Two years were spent training day in and day out before the cadets were allowed anywhere near the titan dummies. Countless hours of intense running with packs full of gear through sun clear skies, heavy rain, and just about any other weather condition they could bear. They could have shaved off at least a few months from that time, but Commander Shadis had to put an exceptional amount of effort into convincing Connie that the Maneuver Gear's blades were NOT toys. It had gotten so bad, in fact, that even Armin - patient as he may be - was beginning to get annoyed with the young man's blatant ignorance of safety. It wasn't until he accidentally cut his hand open that he finally got the message and they were allowed to progress in their training.

In those two years, Dirk had grown out of his scrawny physique from when he was twelve. He now stood a full head taller, and had put on quite a few pounds of muscle. While he developed physically, Noor gained incredible prowess with her 3D Maneuver Gear. Her small frame and light weight lead to her being more agile than most of the other cadets, and she could reach higher speeds without using nearly as much gas. However, as they began their training with the fake titans, one thing became obvious to everyone in the 104th Cadet Corps:

Mikasa was going to leave them all in the dust.

Dirk had lost count of the number of times he moved in on a titan dummy, only for the first cut to be taken by Mikasa, who would swoop in out of nowhere and leave a cut deeper than he could ever dream of leaving in the leather material that made up the nape.

As Dirk moved through the forest, scanning through the trees in search of another target, he briefly saw Jean, who was being unknowingly tailed by Connie. His gaze moved upwards, where he noticed Sasha practically stalking them from above. Dirk let off the gas on his own gear, keeping pace with the small group to see where Jean would lead them. Jean, having been unable to make a deeper cut than Bertolt or Annie, had resorted to searching the forest for targets that hadn't been found yet, but when he finally found an untouched target, he got cocky, which gave Connie an opening to move in to take it for himself.

"Thanks, Jean!" Connie shouted, announcing his presence as he descended upon the titan. "I was right to follow you!" As Connie moved into position to strike, two other figures moved in, each taking a cut out of the target's nape, with one cut hitting much deeper than the other.

"Come on, Sasha!" Dirk called out teasingly, letting out a laugh as he rested against a tree. "I told you, if you want my dinner rations, you have to beat my score in Titan kills! At least try to get  _ one  _ point over me!"

Sasha, unsurprisingly, didn't take to kindly to the taunting, specifically because this was a bet made with food involved. Her face passed from bubbly happiness to a look of pure determination. She quickly shot out her anchors, leaving a trail of steam as she sped off into the forest

Noor had been making her way through the targets with a grace that could only be described as a kind of dance. She hadn't been entirely focused on where Dirk was at the moment, as she found herself in a zone of concentration. As the Maneuver Gear propelled her light frame through the forest quickly, she would catch a glimpse of the tan color of the leather napes that stood out from the rest of the forest scenery. She would then reposition and change directions, cutting into the target with a blinding speed that baffled almost anyone who watched. Despite the speed and agility with which she moved, however, her cuts were never quite as deep as Dirk's or some of the other cadets', but they were still deep enough to kill.

As Noor closed in on another target, a glint of light caught her eye, and she recoiled back on instinct as Mikasa shot past her, cutting the nape so deep she almost hit the wooden body itself. Before Noor could even move in on the target again, Mikasa had moved to the next nearby target, cutting it just as deep without so much as a single flaw in her form. Noor quickly struck the two targets, leaving her cuts in them and moving on, while Eren brought up the rear, cutting into the napes, but leaving too shallow of a gash to be considered a kill.

As the first training exercise came to a close, the points were tallied based on how many titans each cadet killed, which was determined by the number of cuts they made, and the depth of each cut. Mikasa placed first with a landslide victory, while Reiner came in second, though he only had maybe half the points as Mikasa. Shadis notified everyone that they could continue training if they pleased, but another exercise would take place at night, so they should consider conserving energy.

Noor, determined to improve her scores, had taken to training on her own. She moved through the forest, cutting through target after target, improving - if only a little - with each strike. As she moved in to take out one last target, she felt a sudden lurching, her stomach dropping as she watched her anchors lose their place. Up became down, left became right as she plummeted towards the ground. Despite how little she used while moving, she had run out of gas. She closed her eyes, hoping for the blur of browns, greens, and the occasional blue of the sky to stop spinning around in her vision, but most of all hoping that the ground was soft.

"Hey!"

There was another lurching in her stomach as her body suddenly changed directions again. She felt a strong arm around her shoulders, pinning her against someone's torso as they moved to the branch of a large tree. She kept her eyes squeezed closed throughout the brief flight, only opening them when she felt solid ground under her feet.

Standing across from her, his hands on his knees, was a rather winded Reiner. He had caught her before she had actually hit the ground and - with a little assistance from Bertolt and Dirk - moved her into a tree.

"Dammit! That was reckless of you. Way to lose track of your gas," Reiner commented, looking up at Noor as she spoke

"Hey! I didn't ask for you to swoop in and help me!" Noor shot back, crossing her arms and averting her gaze. Unfortunately for her, when she looked away from Reiner, she found herself looking right at Dirk, who was also catching is breath.

"Really now?" He asked, standing up straight. "So you'd rather we let you hit the dirt like a sack of potatoes?"

Noor made to respond, but she stopped herself. She realized that this wasn't an argument she could win. The fall could have injured her to the point that she couldn't continue training, and that would be the best case scenario.

"Mmsry" she mumbled.

"Mmm, what was that?" Dirk teased, cupping a hand over his ear and leaning in.

"I said I'm sorry! And... thanks. For not letting me die," she said, glaring daggers at Dirk.

"Don't mention it," Reiner replied, finally catching his breath and standing up.

"Just make sure to keep track of how much gas you have left, okay? If that were a real titan, you would be toast!" Bertolt added, glancing over at the titan dummy.

As the sun set just beyond the mountains in the distance, the Cadets were rounded back up in the forest. The youths' faces were all that anyone had to look at to see who spent the entire day training, and who actually heeded Shadis' advice. Eren, for example, looked like the definition of exhaustion because he never stopped practicing, whereas Connie and Sasha stopped practicing as soon as they were allowed to, so they still had energy to spare. Dirk and Noor were somewhere in the middle, having spent modest time practicing, before taking a break after Noor almost fell.

"ALRIGHT SHIT BAGS!" the voice of the instructor boomed as he paced in front of the recruits, his arms crossed behind his back. "You may think you're all tough shit because you can cut up a few dummies on your own, but if you run into battle with that mentality, you'll all be titan food before you finish losing your lunch at the sight of one of them!" Shadis finally came to a stop, centered in front of everyone as he looked at them all, his cold eyes showing nothing but disgust. 

"If you really want a shot at living, you'll have to prove that you can work well in a group, regardless of who that group might be! These next titan dummies have an extra target on them: their ankles. Your goal will be to cut the ankle BEFORE slicing the nape to prove you can effectively communicate with teammates! Anyone who doesn't make the cut will run along the perimeter of this forest until their legs give out. ARE WE CLEAR?!"

A sea of motion passed through the crowd as everyone snapped into a salute, their fists over their hearts as the cacophony of young teens shouting "YESSIR" filled the forest.

The cadets were separated into groups of four, with a few groups of five due to the size of the 104th Cadet Corps. Mikasa, much to her disappointment, was grouped with Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie. Eren was stuck with Jean, Armin, Daz, and Marco, a dark haired male who saw the bright side in everything and everyone. Dirk managed to luck out, being grouped with Noor, Connie, and Sasha. 

"YOUR TIME STARTS.....

NOW!"

There was a brief moment of panic as the recruits scrambled over each other, everyone launching into the air.

Rather than jumping into the air immediately, Dirk threw his arms around Noor and Sasha, who both pulled Connie into a huddle.

"Don't start yet! If we join the herd, we'll lose each other. We wait a second, and we move out together!" Dirk said, having to shout over the sound of grappling hooks and gas canisters being expended. Connie nodded in acknowledgement, and they broke apart, taking to the sky once everyone else had dispersed a bit.

As Dirk hung off a tree, he didn't feel nervous or panicked. In fact, he felt a calm wash over him. He knew exactly where his comrades were, and he felt like he understood each of their strengths and weaknesses-

\- and most importantly, how to work with that.

Grappling into a new pair of trees, Dirk sped off in the direction of a target he could just barely see. 

"Follow me! On my command, Connie, you take the nape! Sasha, when he moves in, use your extra speed to dive in and strike the ankle before he does!" He called out. As they approached the target, he scanned the forest, looking for the next one. Once he had found the next titan dummy, he called out to them.

"Now!"

Connie let out a burst of gas, speeding towards the titan dummy's nape. Just like in the training earlier that day, Sasha swooped in, striking her target before Connie could reach the nape, earning them a point.

"Noor! The next Titan is at 2 o'clock. You move into position, and when I take out the ankle, you get the nape!" Dirk called out, turning in the air towards the target he pointed out.

"Look at you! Acting all leader-y!" Sasha shouted, letting out a laugh as her Maneuver gear reeled her upwards.

Dirk laughed a little nervously, grinning sheepishly as they moved towards the target. He let out a war cry as he dove in, cutting through the target's ankle. He hit the dirt, landing on one foot and pushing down, practically bouncing back into the air. He turned just in time to watch Noor move in, slicing a clean wedge out of the dummy's nape.

"Sasha, do you see any other targets?" Noor asked as they all took a moment to catch their breaths.

"Yes! There's one that way!" Sasha shouted, pointing in a direction.

"There's one that way, too!" Connie added, pointing in another direction.

Dirk hummed quietly, rubbing his chin as he pondered which target to reach first. As an idea came to him, he turned around, carving a large X into the tree he was perched on. 

"Noor, you go with Sasha to the target she sees. I'll go with Connie towards his. Once we've taken out our targets, meet back up at this tree. The carving should be visible from both of our targets." He explained, zipping over to where the buzz cut male was perched. They split up, Dirk following Connie deeper into the forest towards their next target.

"You take the ankles this time, I'll get the nape," Dirk said simply, circling the target. As soon as Connie took the ankle, he moved in, slicing through the nape and grinning. "Great work! Let's go meet up with the others again!" He called out, moving between the trees towards the mark he left.

As he and Connie returned, Dirk noticed that Noor and Sasha were already waiting for them.

"Took you long enough!" Noor called out, sticking her tongue out at Dirk.

"My cuts were probably still deeper!" Dirk shot back, sticking his tongue out at her in response.

The group moved through the forest like a well oiled machine. Despite everyone's flaws that were displayed in the individual assessments, it was as if those flaws were never there to begin with. From his perch against a tree, Keith Shadis watched the four of them work through the titans in the proper "ankle first, nape second" order. As he watched the rest of the groups, he noticed a distinct lack of the synergy that those four had. Mikasa and Annie hardly spoke to each other, and they would strictly go for the neck, breaking the order of attack. On the other hand, Eren and Jean never stopped bickering, and Armin struggled to keep them off each other's throats. On more than one occasion, Eren and Jean even crashed into each other because they went for the same part of a dummy.

_ We see exceptional recruits almost every year.  _ Shadis thought to himself.  _ But rarely do we see the ones with the strength to bring a group together. It's like Riegan knows each of his teammates' strengths, and plays those to their greatest potential. The four of them are above average at best, but when they're put into a group... _

"TIME'S UP! GET BACK DOWN HERE, YOU WORTHLESS RUNTS!"

At the sound of Instructor Shadis' voice, Noor returned to the starting point, followed by Sasha, then Connie, and finally Dirk, bringing up the rear. Dirk placed his hands on his knees, his breath heavy from the continuous strain he put on his body and voice.

"Luckily for you runts, no one failed the exercise." Shadis said, his face stoic as ever while he spoke. "However, I don't have much hope for any of you, seeing as watching you useless shits trying to work together was like watching a group of toddlers fighting over a toy. If your cooperation is that piss poor in a real battle, you'll all be as good as dead!" He shouted, glaring at the crowd. "That being said... one group did manage to work rather well together. Dirk von Riegan! Sasha Brause! Aynoor Hassan! and Connie Springer! You four might live long enough to watch all your comrades die before being eaten yourselves!"

The cheers that came from the other three were more than enough to make up for Dirk's enthusiastic croaking. He stood up straighter, high-fiving his teammates and hiding his exhaustion.

As the recruits settled at the wooden tables for their last meal of the day, Dirk ate in silence... for once. He wolfed down most of his food, slamming back his cup of water and downing the whole thing in record time. When he finished his water, he stared off into space for a moment, before noticing the bewildered look Noor was giving him.

"What? Can I not eat in peace?" he asked, glancing between her, Connie, and Sasha, who had also sat with them.

"No no... it's just, I haven't seen you eat like that since we were kids," Noor commented, laughing a little.

"She's right," Connie added, leaning in on his elbows. "Usually you and Eren are talking each other's ears off around this time. I think this is the first time you haven't said anything during a meal since we got here! And usually you start with your bread, and work in towards everything else, but it looks like you did it backwards today,"

"Why... the hell do you know that?" Dirk asked, giving him a bewildered look. Before he could answer, Sasha cut him off.

"Regardless! The biggest question has yet to be answered!" She exclaimed. She placed her hands on the table, leaning in almost uncomfortable close to Dirk. In fact, he had to lean back a little in order to still be able to maintain eye contact.

"Are you gonna finish the bread?"

Dirk, thinking there was an actually pressing matter at hand, let out a defeated sigh. He grabbed the small loaf of bread, tearing it in half so he still had something to eat, before cramming the other half into her mouth, using the movement to push her back into her seat at the same time.

"Help yourself," he replied, before taking a bite out of the half he still had.

"Hohly shit, rlly? Y'r th bst tem leadr ehvr!" Sasha exclaimed through her mouth full of bread. After a moment of chewing, she swallowed the entire half loaf of bread at once, a look of bliss passing over her face as she swayed in her chair.

"Anyway..." Noor butted in, glancing at Sasha and stifling a laugh. "What's up? Usually you're not so quiet,"

"Guess I was just hungry?" Dirk replied, unsure of the answer himself. "That and I just spent the last hour shouting orders at you three. I don't know how the hell Shadis has been doing it to us for the past 2 years without a break!" he added, chuckling tiredly.

The bell signifying the end of their meal sounded once again, and everyone pulled themselves out of their seats, trudging towards the door. Dirk, eager to hit the hay as early as possible, tried to reach the front of the crowd, but he was suddenly stopped as a hand grabbed his wrist.

"Hey,"

He turned around slowly, his eyes meeting the amber gaze of Sasha. She smiled at him, letting go of his wrist and rocking back and forth on her feet.

"Thanks a lot, for taking the lead like that. Throughout this training, I was afraid we would just bee seen as average, but you made us look really good out there!" She exclaimed.

Slightly taken aback, and unused to compliments in general, Dirk fumbled with his words for a second, before taking a deep breath to recompose himself. 

"I really didn't do much out there. That was all you guys! I just pointed you in the right directions. You guys really didn't have to listen to me," he replied.

"But we did listen, and we got the best grade because of it! I like to think I've got a good eye for people, and lemme tell ya, yer a natural leader!" Sasha exclaimed. There was a sudden silence that hung in the air, followed by a tension you could cut with a rusty knife. Sasha clapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and embarassment.

"I-I mean... you are a natural leader! Anyways... Good night!" She exclaimed, rushing past him and out the door.

Dirk watched her leave, standing still for a moment before finally exiting the dining hall himself. When Sasha got excited, it seemed like some kind of accent started poking through, and that seemed to have startled her.

_ Maybe she's embarrassed by it?  _ Dirk thought to himself. He finally made it to his cot, collapsing on top of the sheets and closing his eyes. He didn't even have time to dwell on any of it. Her accent, her genuine excitement, the big eyed look she gave him when she thanked him. If he dwelled on any of those things for too long, he might have started over thinking things, which would have been a disaster for him.

But, whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for him, Dirk von Riegan was completely exhausted. So, rather than dwelling on anything, for that matter, he slept, and rather heavily at that. There were no nightmares, but there were no dreams either as he entered a sleep heavy enough to be comparable to death itself.


End file.
